The rabbi of Pittsburgh told Trump that the hate speech had led to a massacre in the synagogue

Myers said he personally sent this message to President Donald Trump when he and First Lady Melania Trump visited Tree of Life / L & # 39; Simcha, the scene of the shootout, on Tuesday.

"I said to him," Mr. President, hate speech leads to hateful acts. Hate speech leads to what happened in my sanctuary where seven of my congregation were slaughtered. I saw it with my eyes. "

According to the police, the man charged with the attack called for "killing Jews", in part because Jewish groups helped refugees settle in the United States.

With a rainbow-colored prayer cloth and a Pittsburgh Yarmulke, the rabbi made clear his distaste for Washington, but also said he did not accuse the president or "person" of the attack or "person."

Myers also addressed criticism he received from other Jewish fellow citizens, and resented the fact that he had met Trump, who was accused of using anti-Semitic tropes and hate-filled rhetoric. Trump has repeatedly denied the allegations, noting that his daughter and son-in-law are Jewish.

"The scourge of anti-Semitism can not be ignored, can not be tolerated and must not continue," Trump said last week.

After meeting with Trump, Myers said on Saturday that some Jews accused the rabbi of "going to the dark side." One even suggested that he would be "uncircumcised".

"I said," OK, you go first, "Myers said and laughed at the meeting, more seriously telling Myers that he had resorted to lessons of Jewish tradition in welcoming the president.

More than 600 people occupied the Beth Shalom Congregation for the Shabbat service, including members of the congregations who were attacked in the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh last week, just over a mile away. The members of each of the three assemblies alternately read the parts of the Torah that comprise the first five books of the Hebrew Bible.

On Saturday, members of the grieving Jewish community in Pittsburgh had watched a minute and eleven seconds of silence to remember the eleven souls killed on October 27.

"God has had nothing to do with this, it's not our theology, people are given the free will, we have the choice between good and evil, some people choose evil, our job is to make sure those who do choosing evil, deciding I have no access to assault rifles, "said writer Beth Kissileff, wife of the rabbi of the New Light Congregation, to applause.

About a mile away, in front of the still-closed Synagogue of Tree of Life, his former Rabbi Chuck Diamond conducted a Shabbat service outside on Saturday morning.

"This was a place where so many people were happy," Diamond said. It was the place where Bris ceremonies, bar mitvahs and weddings took place. The rabbi called on the survivors not to feel guilty, but to remember that they were blessed with the gift of life.

A provisional church

On Friday evening, members of the Jewish community greeted the Sabbath on Friday night in front of the "Tree of Life" synagogue after the police marked the barriers of their makeshift community.

About 50 men embraced and swayed, harmonizing in Hebrew under dark skies as the police watched and pilgrims placed stones and flowers at the memorials for the eleven killed Kongregants. The building is still closed while the police are working on the crime scene.

Many of the women also sang, though they stood by. Children ran back and forth, playing between their parents' legs. A father gently wiped the tears from his teenage son's cheeks and comforted him gently as the congregation prayed.

At one point, the service was discontinued to thank an FBI member who had helped the Chevrah Kadisha, the Jewish organization that helps prepare the bodies for burial. After that, the church broke into "Al Hanisim," a Song of Hanukkah that recalls the perseverance of the Jews in the face of violent repression. Although this is not normally part of the Shabbat service, no one had to wonder why the song was to sing that night.

"The Jewish people know from our history that, no matter how bad things seem, we can always pull together," said Rabbi Sam Weinberg, director of the Hillel Academy in Pittsburgh, whose students helped text the Shabbat ministry messages Friday.

"Six days later, right here," he continued, pointing to the synagogue of the tree of life that was nearby. "The most terrible and terrible thing has happened, we can still come together as a people and recover a little from the peace of Shabbat."

The service ended an emotional day in Pittsburgh when the city's Jewish community buried the last of its dead. As night fell, half of Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh's Jewish neighborhood, seemed to be running home from the Sabbath services and huddling against the cold.

"A circle to which nobody wants to belong"

The last funeral of the eleven Jews killed a week ago took place on Friday. Rose Mallinger, 97, was remembered for her strong will and commitment to Tree of Life.

In the towering vaults of Rodef Shalom's sanctuary, Mallinger's family and friends praised their zest for life.

"She was 97, but she was not done yet," said Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, who led the community of Mallinger at Tree of Life or L & #; Simcha. "She had sperm."

Later in the service, Myers said that "an angel" had visited him on Friday morning, as well as his spiritual strength. He said the angel was Reverend Eric S. C. Manning, pastor of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in South Carolina, where in 2015 an armed man killed nine members.

Manning said he had traveled to Pittsburgh on Friday to provide moral support, show solidarity, and "pay forward" after so many Americans stepped in to support his church.

At Mallinger's memorial service, the pastor read Psalm 23 and told the church that his church "mourns with you, is with you, and will always be with you."

After the service, a long line of mourners waited to speak with Manning. He hugged him and thanked him for coming to Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh's Jews and his congregation in Charleston have a common and tragic connection, Manning said in a brief interview.

"We are part of a circle nobody wants to participate in," he said. "What we have to do today and every day is to make sure this circle does not get bigger."

Manning was just one of many people around the world moved by last week's anti-Semitic attack.

Myers said he received a phone call from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday. After a brief discussion about which language to talk about (Myers said they chose Hebrew, their "mother tongue"), Netanyahu said that all Israel mourns Pittsburgh, Myers said.

Before Tree of Life, the pilgrims gathered to place flowers and signs at the memorials for the eleven Jews killed by the shooter.

Among them were Jody Yoken and her 9-year-old son Ryder, who were from Toronto for a hockey tournament in the city. Yoken said her son, who is attending a Hebrew school, asked difficult questions after the attack: are we safe? Why do not people like us?

"I tell him that some people have trouble accepting differences," Yoken said, "and so we must try to accept other people as we can."

A global outpouring

The Twitter hashtag #ShowupforShabbat has been moving throughout the week and communities in the United States are calling on people to visit synagogues and show their support after the attack.

In the UK, Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, wrote on Twitter that he would go to the synagogue on Saturday to meet with Jewish Londoners for their Shabbat ministry to show solidarity with the victims of Pittsburgh shooting last weekend.

The Jewish community in Britain also sat down to show solidarity. The leaders called on people to go to church services.

Ray Sanchez, Sarah Jorgensen and Amir Vera of CNN contributed to the report.